Getting Ready for China

So just another day before we depart! Feels a bit sad, even Lexi is sensing the changes and becoming very clingy to Tony. She cried for 3o minutes this morning after she found out Tony wasn't home.  She ran into my room and ran to Tony side of the bed and didn't see him, not too disappointed yet, she ran to the bathroom (go figures!) and didn't see Tony there either, and called out Daddy for a few times before she just started wailing! Brandan is being a good big brother though, he told her a few times that "Daddy went to work!" 

I hope they will be OK being in china with our their Daddy, we will try to use web cam and other ways to stay in touch. 

Brandan is getting ready for the trip too, he watched us packing up and he decided he was going to sit in the suit case and also dragged Lexi into it, he asked Tony to zip them up, but we told him that we are going to get on the airplane instead.  When we were eating fruit at night, Tony asked him if he was ready for China, he quickly stuffed all the grapes into his mouth and then told me he is ready, on top of that he also told me "China is far, let's hurry up!"

We had a BBQ on Sunday, lots of friends came over and I hope they all had a good time like we did. I am going to miss having get-togethers in the summer. The food was great, we had Tony's ribs, burgers and yummy sides, dessert part was my favorite. Carrie brought over Pinkberry's and Beibei brought a cheese cake! The poker after the BBQ is always a good way to end the party.  But as a spectator, I could only sigh when Li Wei took everyone else's chips as the game went along! He was winning every hand, even on the river! He was the grand champion for the night, but i guess his "Everything Happens To Me" cap somehow had helped him.

One more day of packing and organizing then I will be on the road.  Brandan has a small request that we are going to fulfill for him tonight! He wanted to go have Sushi!  He has such a sophisticated taste when it comes to food. He love sushi, loves truffle salted almonds, hummus, stone roasted seaweed...  He hardly ever asks for burgers and hot dogs, pizza remains a favorite but he had chosen sushi over pizza this time.

  Tony and I were thinking maybe he will be a famous chef some day and prepare the banquet for Lexi's wedding. Tony's thoughts stopped at Lexi's wedding and thought Brandan might be better off be something else!

Busy week!

First of all, I am so thrilled about the Lakers' blow out yesterday against the Spurs! I am so excited that the Lakers is finally doing well again, after we had the season tickets for 4 years! However, if they do end up in the Championship, I would be missing the entire series, since I am leaving to go back to China on the 28th.  Not to worry though! I have bought my team outfit to wear to watch the live broadcast from my couch in China!

The first western conference game was the best game I've seen in this whole playoff. Lakers were down by 20 points at the 3rd quarter but eventually won the game by 4 points after Kobe took over the court! Sitting there watching the game was more like an experience of multiple heart attacks with an eventual survival! Not to mention that Tony flew down from SF just to go to the game and then flew back to work on a red eye!

I pretty much spent the rest of the week making list of things to do and to pack for the trip! It was fun to have met up with different friends for lunch though. The weather was crazy! Monday was too hot to even wear a tanktop and Thursday it was raining and freezing.  Had lunch with Uwe at the China Garden for dim sum and met up with the FNF gang on Thursday at Habanas, and what's a better way to end the week by having sushi for lunch on Friday for Terry's birthday and happy hour for dinner at the Elephant Bar. It's just my favorite restaurants one after another! Feels like I gained 10 pounds in 3 days.

It was also very interesting to see how Lexi was interacting with Aidan! Two little friends, too cute!

Random Thoughts

Brandan is a good boy! I took him to the mall to buy gifts for his friends' birthday party. He really wanted to have new toys, but I told him that he has lots of toys at home already and can't have another one for a while. He was upset, he was a little down, but I can tell his mind is working.  After a few minutes, he asked me if he could just have a little toy, not a big one. And he kept on saying "I don't want nothing"! at first, i thought he didn't want anything, but after a little while, I realized, he meant he wanted something. Not getting a toy is "nothing" and he doesn't want to Not Getting a Toy!  I couldn't resist and bought him a little power ranger sound switch!  

He starts to act like Tony a lot lately, can't have others tell him what to do, or what's wrong, had to go figure it out himself the hard way! Tony always shakes his head and sigh when Brandan starst to really act like him. But I can see he has a sense of pride in that as well! Man and their ego! Probably started in the belly!

Lexi is the fearless one out of the 2 for sure! We went to the lake for the hot Sunday afternoon per Brandan's request. "I want to go play water at the big park!" He calls it!  After we got there, only took Lexi a couple minutes to not be shy anymore with the water! She was in the water with her arm floaties and the foam noodles just playing, swimming and kicking the water like the bigger kids. She wasn't afraid that she couldn't feel the bottom of the lake, unlike Brandan.  But Brandan got better now too! He kicks the water and tries to swim a lot more than before! It's good that he is more "risk-adverse" better than being reckless.

We are finally starting to get ready for the trip to China, I start to tell him what we are going to do. How we are going to fly to Beijing and Grandma is coming to pick us up and then take him to KM to see animals, go fishing!  Not sure if he gets it, but he tells me about it too! He would say "Grandma on the airplane already? Where is Beijing? We go now? We go later? After I take a nap?"

I think it would be a great experience for him and he remembers so much of what my mom told him about China, it's amazing!  People always say kids don't remember anything until they are 7, 8 years old, but Brandan remembers a lot. He might forget later, but he can have a conversation with me about his babyhood. He would say "last time when i was a baby, a bug bit me"  "Before, Baby Brandan was in mommy's belly and made mommy ouchy" "Remember? When Grandma was here, she said she takes me to see animals!"

Thursday home with Lexi

Lexi has becoming such a cute little girl! She is no longer a baby. She is a down right drama queen already, it's scary!  Yesterday, we were playing outside the backyard and she saw a piece of leave being hit repeatedly by the water, she thought that was just the funnies thing. She laughed, but not a out right laugh. She laughed with her shoulder shrugged and had covered her mouth with her both hands. She as laughing so hard, she was bending down front and backward, still has her hands on her mouth.  Gosh! It's funny to see her do something so mature looking!

She is talking a lot lately, mostly in English. Today, she closed the kitchen door and said to me "i closed the door" This is a very long sentence for a 18 month old.  She also says a lot of other things "baby", "yummie juice", "that's mine!", etc. Mostly learned from Brandan.

She really likes to spend time with me at home on Thursdays without Brandan, she is all over the place, touching Brandan's toys that she normally doesn't get to mess with, getting into the cabinet and climb to get cookies. Her facial expression is also very animated! She would stretch her face long and stare at something looking surprised, but immediately change to a grim and a smile.

Brandan is a big boy now, he no longer has the toddler look, the way he walks, talks and acts make him a grown boy!  He loves to wear his jeans and crocs and always walking around with a drink in hand. (don't know if that's a good thing, but at least i know what's in it for now) He still loves to eat, as always. But I think it's a good thing that he loves fruit, crunchy carrots more than candy bars and popsicles. He also loves to tell story, he will make up some story and tell me about it for a good 15 minutes. Today on the way to school, he just told me that a lizard was going some where, and then lighting came, and a dianosaur was stomping and the lizard was soooo scared and the tree was moving, and then the robot came and the lizard was tired and wanted to go to sleep...

I can't wait for him to be more articulate and able to really tell stories, that would be so fun, then i just need for him to tell stories in Chinese as good as he does in English!

He has turned to a caring brother from the old jealousy toddler who is obsessed with everything around him.  He still fights with Lexi, but there are plenty of times that he would tell me to put down lexi so she can walk on her own, because she is a big girl now.  He would also ask her if she wants to drink or eat something or wants her binky, then if Lexi nods, he would run for life to me and tell me what Lexi needs.  Lexi is lucky to have a brother who watch out for her now.  Brandan really enjoys to talk with Lexi, many times, he has asked me "can lexi talk?" At first i didn't know what to answer, but now i just tell Brandan to talk to Lexi. He will ask him how her day was at school, and if she needed more snacks or tell her she shouldn't be doing something...it's so cute.